The Constitutional Court of BiH held today its regular 40th session of the Grand Chamber.
At the today’s session of the Grand Chamber, the Constitutional Court of BiH, inter alia, examined a number of appeals lodged for alleged violations of the appellants’ constitutional rights inflicted upon them by the regular courts including a number of appeals that raise an issue of liability for defamation.
For the illustration purposes, we note the following:
Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina granted the appeal of Mr. Marinko Planinić from Čitluk lodged against the judgment of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. S1 2 K 005972 13 Kž 2 of 31 October 2014 that found the appellant guilty for having, as a responsible person, with an intent of obtaining property gain for legal entity and through conscious evading to pay taxes for turnover of goods and services and other fiscal labilities, inflicted damages to the budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (…), as it established that there has been violation of the right to fair trial under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Hercegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Deciding in this case, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina concluded that there is a violation of the right to a fair trial under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms for the manner in which the key evidence was obtained and used in the proceedings against the appellant. The judgments based on which the appellant was convicted to a prison sentence, are for the most part based on the expert witness examination of the documentation confiscated inconsistently with the provisions of Article 71 of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH as the prosecutor, during opening and examination of the confiscated objects (documentation), failed to inform the appellant and his defense attorney on this and the documentation was not confiscated nor identified in the appellant’s presence which allowed for no possibility of submitting objections as stipulated by law.
Therefore, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina annulled the above-referenced judgment and remitted the case to the Court of BiH whish was obligated to urgently take a new decision in accordance with Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Inter alia, the Constitutional Court decided on a number of requests on violation of the appellants’ rights to a fair trial. In cases in which the Court established the violation of the right to a fair trial, as the courts failed to adopt decisions within reasonable time limit, the competent courts were ordered to complete the proceedings urgently and inform the Constitutional Court, within three months from the date of submission of decision, on the measures taken to enforce the decisions.
The Court rejected a number of appeals which were, manifestly prima facie ill-founded and inadmissible. This relates to the cases in which the Court found that the claims were not justified i.e. that the acts the appellants presented to the Court in those cases could not have in any manner justified the claim of the appellants that there is a violation of their rights protected by the Constitution or that the parties to the proceedings bear the consequences of violation of rights protected by the Constitution.
All decisions taken at the session are to be delivered to the appellants within a time-limit of one month and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
